COVID Is Different
This is the eighth of a series of posts on Long COVID by David Brasure. See parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
I get it. You think COVID isn’t that dangerous anymore. You think it’s just like all the other viruses now.
A lot of it has to do with the times you grew up in. We don’t have much memory of viruses and bacteria killing thousands of people. We don’t remember when it was common for families to lose at least one child to infection before WWII. We don’t remember the permanent scars smallpox left on peoples faces. What we remember are colds and flu. Fever, aches, a few days down. Then you bounce back.
That became our baseline for what “sick” looks like.
COVID came around. At first, people freaked out. Millions died. Then something shifted. It slid into the same mental bucket as everything else. Just another cold. Just another flu.
It’s not.
If you grew up in a second or third world country, places where serious diseases still circulate, you know the difference. Zika is different. Ebola is different. Polio is different. Each virus does its own kind of damage. We used to understand that. Now we’re making the mistake of normalizing something we don’t understand.
Flu and colds don’t breach your blood-brain barrier. SARS-CoV-2 does.
Flu and colds don’t shred your endothelial lining and increase your risk of blood clots. SARS-CoV-2 does.
Flu and colds don’t persist in your tissues. SARS-CoV-2 can.
Flu and colds don’t damage your immune system, causing low T cells. SARS-CoV-2 can.
Now we’re seeing signs it may increase your risk of cancer. SARS-CoV-2 may do this.
The list goes on.
Long COVID is caused by SARS-CoV-2. It’s devastating millions of people. Stop expecting it to act like something it’s not.
Want to break the mental spell? Go to PubMed. Search SARS-CoV-2 or Long COVID. Hundreds of thousands of studies staring you in the face. Tons of damage.
Maybe you’ve been infected a dozen times and you still feel fine. Will that always be the case? Don’t bet on it.
COVID is different because you can catch it every year. You can catch it multiple times in a single year. It mutates fast. Do you really want something that damages your arteries hitting your system over and over?
I sure don’t.
